2nd Entry

After a month I now feel that I’ve settled in and have got used to life in Kingston. I’ve found it to be a very exciting city; with great nightlife and beaches or mountains within an hour’s drive. I have also become a big fan of Jamaican cuisine, and alternate between 3 places downtown for my lunch.

The size of the workload varies. At times I’ve had a number of assignments that need to be completed with haste. However, other times, and especially when my supervisors are on mission, I have had less to do. Nevertheless, I am still deeply interested in all the work that I am undertaking.

I was instructed to go through the SPAW workplan and assess which goals are achievable through desk-based research. This then involved trawling through agency documents and scientific papers to gather information on topics such as mangroves, ship strikes and manatees. It was enjoyable work and I feel that I was able to learn a lot about environmental issues in the Caribbean at the same time.

Challenges Faced As mentioned above, at times there are dips in the amount of work assigned, so it was important to identify what other productive tasks I could achieve during these periods.

Some issues are not always addressed immediately by the programme, such as having a Memorandum of Cooperation between the IOC and UNEP. This was proposed in 2009, but still has not occurred.

Lessons Learnt It is not always as easy to achieve a goal with multiple countries/agencies as it might initially appear. There are often holdups with projects or agreements, and this can arise as documentation has to be passed through various partners before it is approved.